degroe
A archaeological term for a field archaeologist who pushes a shovel or trowel through the dirt more often than a pen across paper (typically through lack of advanced degrees or love of the outdoors and discovery). The term was invented as a corruption of the term "digger" which rimes with nigger hence archaeological "field nigger" was a protypical term. In the early 1970s "Degroe" was invented therefore to adapt a sarcastically more politcally correct base word linkage ie. using digger and negroe. Degroe was mockingly inspired by 1960s southerners who tried to stop saying niggers by saying negras instead of negroes. No racial slurs exist in any of this but the status of the field archaeologist has all to often remained low frequently for no good reason. Hence the parallel with the treatment of African Americans who did a great deal of work and received very little credit or status an analogy which cannot be ignored here.
Hi is Dr. Jones here today on the dig, no Sir, ain't nobody here but us degroes today he's done gone up to the big house (college lab).
degroe by C. T. Hodges June 27, 2006
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